The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)—a longtime supporter and proponent of food irradiation—has launched a five-year coordinated research project (CRP) to foster plant health preparedness using nuclear and related technologies. Fast-spreading plant diseases such as cassava witches broom disease, potato bacterial wilt, potato late blight, and wheat blast are a high priority to eradicate; they can cause devastating crop losses.
“The CRP aims to develop well-tested pipelines for disease suppression. In combination with high-throughput screening and sensor-based phenotyping tools, nuclear-enabled approaches provide more targeted and efficient interventions,” reported Nuclear Newswire.
“…Launched through the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization’s joint Center on Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture with the IAEA, the CRP is linked to IAEA’s Atoms4Food initiative, which aims to help countries build tailored solutions to tackle the issue of food insecurity. According to the FAO’s 2025 report “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World”, food insecurity impacted around 8.2 percent of the global population in 2024 [about 672,400,000 people].”
